The present invention relates to a technology for constructing an access environment to enable access by a host to a logical volume in a storage system.
For example, a computer system comprising a management server in which a host is connected to a storage system as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-268625 is known.
In a computer system of this type, by allocating a logical volume of the storage system to a host, the host is then able to use the logical volume. An example of the specific flow to the point where the logical volume is allocated to the host is as follows. Here, as the storage system, a storage system comprising a security function will be described by way of example. The security function is, for example, a function to ensure that, by associating the WWN (‘HBA-WWN’ hereinbelow) of the HBA (host bus adapter) of the host with the host port of the storage system (the port for accepting access requests transmitted by the host), a volume disclosure request (a command related to an inquiry such as an inquiry command, for example) that is sent by the HBA of an HBA-WWN which is different from the associated HBA-WWN is not accepted (received and processed) by the host port.
As a first step, the user of the management server allocates a logical volume of the capacity required by the host to a port of the host. In other words, the logical volume is connected to the host port. As a result, it is defined from which host port information related to which logical volume is supplied. Further, the storage system has a multiplicity of ports. The multiplicity of ports has a plurality of ports which are communicably connected to the host and a plurality of ports which are communicably connected to a plurality of storage devices, for example. However, the ‘host port’ signifies a port that is communicably connected to the host.
As a second step, the user allocates the WWN (World Wide Name) of the HBA (host bus adapter) that the host comprises to the host port. Information related to the logical volume connected to the host port (hereinafter volume information such as the LUN or capacity, for example) is supplied from the host port to the host that comprises the HBA with the WWN allocated to the host port.
As a third step, the host identifies an accessible logical volume based on the volume information supplied by the storage system.
According to the process flow above, the user must know the WWN of the HBA that the host comprises beforehand. This is considered to be a burden to the user. This problem can also occur in cases where another type of communication device and/or another type of communication device identifier is adopted instead of the HBA and/or WWN (for example, this problem can also arise in cases where an iSCSI name is adopted instead of the WWN). In more abstract terms, in instances where the storage system has a function for controlling which logical volume may be identified by which host by associating information related to the host environment (‘host environment information’ hereinbelow) with at least one of a host port and a logical volume, the user must know host environment information beforehand for each of the one or more hosts that exist in the computer system in order to construct an environment (‘access environment’ hereinbelow) to enable access by the host to a logical volume in the storage system.